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One of Sivarasan's diary entries, seized by the CBI from a Tiger safe house in July 1991, notes a 'V Kalyasundaram, President Travel Service, 811 Arunachal Building, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi-11'.

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Enquiries with the agency revealed that Kalyanasundaram worked there as an assistant manager and moved out in 2004.

Kalyanasundaram, who is now settled in Chennai, denies ever having been contacted by Sivarasan or anyone related to him.

Ragothaman - the former chief investigator of CBI, says the LTTE had got his contact details from Kalyanasundaram's uncle Jagadeesan, a retired armyman who ran a rice mill in Thopputhurai.

"It was a lead that the LTTE never followed up."

When contacted, Mani Shankar Aiyar denied any knowledge of the existence of such a plan and dismissed it outright.

"Nobody ever made any contact with me. The connection to President Travels is very distant and I didn't use them (for ticketing) until after I was elected (to Mayiladuturai constituency in 1991)," he said.

Ragothaman explains how the LTTE would have used this lead.

"The LTTE worked several months in advance. They opened safe houses in Chennai in October 1990, seven months before the assassination. They used Congress MP Maragatham Chandrasekhar to get their human bomb close to Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, without her ever suspecting it," he says.

On April 28, the LTTE sent Sonia, a 17-year-old suicide bomber, to a safe house in Chennai where she would remain in wait for a Plan B.

She was chosen for being light complexioned, which would allow her to merge into a crowd in New Delhi.

Sivarasan had already recruited Kanagasabapathy, a retired Sri Lankan Tamil government servant for the purpose.

Kanagasabapathy, in his late 70s, was the father of a deceased LTTE commander.

In May, Kanagasabapathy had hired a safe house in the Capital. The LTTE identified House number A 233, in north Moti Bagh by using a real estate broker in nearby Shanti Niketan.

The two-room central government quarter, illegally sub-let by its government allottee, offered the perfect cover. It was located in a sprawl of single-storey government accommodation in the heart of the national Capital. It was just eight kilometres away from Rajiv Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.

Kanagasabapathy paid Rs 5,000 as advance to the broker.

Concealed: A dictionary with a cavity carved
inside it to conceal a 9 mm pistol,
and some diaries were found
from Sivarasan's house

"My grand-daughter will come and stay here in a few days," he assured the broker. 'Athirai', he said, wanted to study Hindi and computer applications in the Capital.

Sivarasan was, however, confident of assassinating the former prime minister in Tamil Nadu.

The Tiger intelligence chief Pottu Amman favoured the national Capital.

"Why not we try Delhi?" he asked Pottu Amman in a coded message in March 1991.

"I'm confident that I can do it here (in Tamil Nadu)" Sivarasan replied.

Pottu Amman overruled him and insisted he continue with the Delhi operation. But the Delhi plot was abandoned because the Tigers were successful in Sriperumbudur.

The existence of the Delhi plan told the investigators of the LTTE's fanatical determination to stop Rajiv Gandhi from becoming Prime Minister.